


Running Behind

by AmazingGraceless



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aftermath of Battles, Discussions of War, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28050882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazingGraceless/pseuds/AmazingGraceless
Summary: Orla Quirke never thought her Hogwarts years would look quite like this.
Relationships: Kevin Whitby/Orla Quirke





	Running Behind

**Author's Note:**

> A Quidditch League entry. Content warnings for discussions of war, PTSD, and the like. The prompt was “out of the ordinary” which I feel I depicted here. Title comes from the Jackson Browne song.

Nothing was ordinary about Hogwarts. Everything was strange to Orla Quirk. Her older siblings and cousins had described the years of their education as being full of whimsical fun. Sure, there were shenanigans here or there, a prank or Quidditch injury that crossed a line; the occasional Charms backfire or Potions explosion that would get you in a pretty Knut of trouble. But for all that some adults in the Wizarding World feared for all of their children in the height of puberty being locked inside the stone castle with their magic for several months far from all they had once known, little had ever come from it.

Indeed, even the adults would romanticize and speak nostalgically and longingly for the months when they had been young and studying magic for the first time like young gods in their own right.

It was supposed to be all fun and learning and dreaming of an even more whimsical future in the world that belonged to them, that was theirs by birthright and by the magic that flowed through their veins.

But it had all gone wrong starting with Orla's first year. She had been Sorted to Ravenclaw, like about half of her family, particularly her father's side, and that had all been well and good. But you could tell that something was out of the ordinary. Perhaps it was the residue of the adrenaline of the Quidditch World Cup and the terror that came after. Orla remembered flying the flag for her mother's home country well, and then stumbling through the woods in the dark in her nightgown, her cousins having left her behind in their own fear.

Orla would have dismissed it—but then Dumbledore had announced that they would be holding the Triwizard Torunament at Hogwarts. Everyone had been excited, but Orla had a bad feeling that she couldn't quite describe. She would later recognize it as the gift that many women in her mother's family carried: the Second Sight. Able to see into the future, and some bonus intuitions and perceptions beyond that of a normal witch or wizard.

But she wouldn't recognize that until she saw a nightmare play in front of her on that final night, when Harry Potter was raving and ranting, clutching the corpse of Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff champion. Orla had looked over to her friends who were in Hufflepuff, Rose Zeller and Kevin Whitby, and knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

And she would never be the same. The dreams intensified, and she had to go looking for friends outside of Ravenclaw, as her roommates had spread that even for a witch, something was not quite ordinary about that Quirk girl, perhaps it's because she's Irish. . .

It had taken everything not to challenge them to a duel over that.

Then the next year had come with Umbridge, secrets, and conspiracies of all sorts. Orla had kept her nose down and out of trouble as her parents wished. She'd had enough to worry about without joining Potter's secret army. There was homework, her visions, and trying to keep some friendships and to salvage another ruined year.

Third-year hadn't been much better, as there was a war outside of school, and her family wrote less and less often, too busy with their own lives to even talk to her, making her feel more alone, more isolated.

Fourth-year had been the worst, as the war had come to Hogwarts. Despite the age restriction, Orla had been one of the ones to sneak back into the castle and fight and watch her friends and classmates die.

That certainly wasn't the ordinary education of a witch in the United Kingdom.

Fifth-year had come, and there had almost been an illusion of the ordinary, of what Hogwarts was supposed to be. Families and students in King's Cross forced smiles as they said goodbye to their children. The children spent their pocket money on sweets they didn't need, and they chattered and mixed without regard for house (except for Slytherin, unless you were one of the few who came back, but those were to rare to count as Slytherins). The blue sky was even the same as in 1991, when Orla's youngest older sister went off for her final year at Hogwarts. The last time that Orla could recall anything being normal in the wizarding world.

At first when they got off of the Hogwarts Express, Hagrid had been there to welcome them with his dog and a jovial smile, and everyone was in good spirits. That is, until the older students went to the carriages.

Orla had thought before that they were propelled by charms or perhaps some sort of technomancy machine, as that was a rapidly-growing branch of magic as her oldest brother would keep reminding her in all his letters. But she could see now that she was wrong, and she felt stupid for believing otherwise.

Of course they were thestrals, of course they were the horses that one could only see when they had watched someone die.

Who had it been? Orla had seen so many deaths over the past year, their faces blended together, eyes all glassy and as silent as the stone marring the grass and flowers of the field where they were buried now.

She had been a fool to believe that any part of her education would be ordinary. Nothing ever would be. She wouldn't get the stories that her family had—her youth would be wasted on a war and the painful reconstruction everyone knew was coming next.

Before she could cry, however, she heard the voice of a friend.

"Oi, Orla, over here!"

Orla turned her head, and her cobalt eyes found Natalie MacDonald from Gryffindor, who was waving wildly, much to Rose's annoyance.

As she took the final seat next to Kevin, Orla realized that she still had three years left at Hogwarts. She still had time to make memories, to try and create something that she could romanticize like her parents did.

Indeed, she still had her friends. And while she would have preferred to have an ordinary education, she wouldn't trade her experiences for anything. Because they were hers.

As she saw something in Kevin's face that was beautiful in a way she didn't understand yet, she knew that it was everything being out of the ordinary that would make it worth remembering.


End file.
